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By MARY MCWHORTER
Staff Writer
The headline of the July 7 issue of
I the Dallas Times Herald read: “Va
nished investor leaves tangled empi
re.”
Donald Herrick, a 45-year-old
businessman, had disappeared in
May with an unknown amount of
money after his wife increased her
settlement demands in their pen
ding divorce; and after an investiga
tion was begun of his companies by
Securities and Exchange Commis
sion investigators.
In a final letter to associates Her
rick said, “I’ve decided to be a Jonah
and jump overboard rather than be
a heroic captain going down with the
ship.”
Although this story sounds like an
episode of “Dallas,” this type of uns
crupulous behavior is typical of amo
ral individuals known as psycho
paths.
Contrary to popular belief, psy
chopaths are not crazy. They have a
firm grasp of reality. In fact, there
are certains advantages to being a
psychopath. The idea being tlrat
their actions are not restrained by
guilt feelings or morals. This can aid
the person who seeks to gain power
or even to rule the world.
First, to avoid confusion, there is
no such thing as a pure psychopath.
Indeed, we all possess some aspect of
psychopathy. Most people have used
others for their gain. But most peo
ple have the capacity for guilt. Psy
chopaths do not have this restraint.
One mechanism, though, which
does restrain psychopaths is their
need to blend in with the rest of so
ciety.
As Adolf Gu
uggenbuhl points out
in his book, “Eros on Crutches,”
some psychopaths sense their lack of
love ana caring. T his emptiness and
at her, ncj lack of close personnal relationships
frightens them. In order to adapt,
they compensate with a rigid moral
code. Guggenbuhl refers to these in
dividuals as compensated psycho
paths.
“These are the people who are al
ways talking about principles,” he
said. “They get so lost in principles
that they never notice the need for a
little milk of human kindness by way
of balance.
“Compensated psychopaths tend
to seek out occupations where those
with whom they work will help to
maintain a moral rigidity, occupa
tions where a strict morality is the or
der of the day,” he said. “We would
not, therefore, be surprised to find
large numbers of compensated psy
chopaths in the so-called helping
professions: teaching, psychiatry,
the ministry, social work, and the
like.”
With this idea in mind, it is easier
to understand the workings of an in
dividual like Jim Jones, a minister
who convinced many of his followers
to commit suicide. And yet, he main
tained close relations with such pow
erful and well known figures as for
mer first lady Rosalynn Carter.
Indeed there have been darker
times in history when guiltless hu
man beings have taken over entire
countries. Guggenbuhl used Adolf
Eichmann, the organizer of the “fi
nal solution” to give a classic exam
ple of a compensated psychopath.
“He (Eichmann) loyally and admi
rably carried out the ‘duty’ of exter
minating his fellow man, but his very
dedication to ‘duty,’ expressing his
own alienation in this world, vented
so heinously his hate towad all hu
man beings who were not like him,”
he said. “The commandant of a con
centration camp wrote in his diary at
the close of the war: ‘It is very sad
that I can no longer fill my daily
quotas in the gas chambers. I have
neither enough staff nor enough
supplies. Every night I go to bed
with a nagging conscience because I
have been unable to do my duty.”’
Could the disastorous effects of
the regimes of Alexander the Great,
lap
Hitler or Joseph Stalin
day? Guggenbuhl says he
Adolf
happen to-
s belie
lieves it
“I am convinced that a democracy
whose citizens are incapable of dis
cerning a psychopath will be de
stroyed be power-hungry dema
gogues,” Guggenbuhl said.
He goes on to cite that Switzer
land’s preference of mediocre politi
cal figures as opposed to ‘great men’
such as Napoleon, is the result of “an
instinctual desire to prevent psycho
paths from coming to power.”
The power of the highest admin
istrative positions in Switzerland is so
strictly curtailed that is hardly
tempts psychopaths.
Likewise, the political system in
the United States discourages psy
chopaths from seeking high sources
of power, says Ben Crouch, a profes
sor of sociology at Texas A&M.
“They (psychopaths) are probably
too impulsive to get very far in
American politics. They need to be
less impulsive and more reflective,”
he said.
Charles Stoup, a
lessor at Texas A&M
American politicains must work well
in groups and in committess to suc
ceed. Most psychopaths do not have
this ability.
“They (psychopaths) are loners,”
Stoup said. “They don’t work well in
groups and probably could not be
sincere long enough to fool all the
people all the time. They always
seem so confident in their ability to
get away with things. They think
they will never get caught. The last
person did (get caught), but they
won’t. Our political system is much
too open for that. There are too
many people asking too many ques
tions.”
However, others contend that
perhaps to some degree, psycho
paths have already been elected to
the office of president of the United
States.
In his biography “Lyndon B.
psychology pro-
k&M adds that
Johnson Remembered,” Jerry Sinsie
depicts that the former president as
a very unscrupulous and power hun
gry man.
Steve Liter, a clinical psychologist
at the Texas A&M student counsel
ing center said that he also believed
Johnson to demonstrate some psy
chopathic tendencies.
“There is no doubt in my mind
that he (Johnson) was real narcissis
tic (a narcissistist is a psychopath that
is able to charm people and lie easily)
and a little sociopathic (psychopa
thic),” Liter said. “Nixon also dem
onstrated several psychopathic ten
dencies. But I think they both had a
conscience.”
As in politics, businesses can have
thier share of unscrupulous charac
ters. These people can be partic
ularly successful because they are of
ten so charming and can appear so
trustwothy.
The vanished Dallas businessman
josedly sold artificially valued
for $30 million. The private
stocks were sold to a group of doc
tors who were financially unsophisti
cated and because the stocks were
not publically traded, the doctors
had to rely on Herrick’s assurances
about the stocks’ value.
“Today, lots of people are looking
for Herrick and wondering how
their perceptions of him differ from
the truth,” reports the Dallas Times
Herald writer, Jeff Brown.
William Keucher, a Baptist min
ister who’s known Herrick for more
than 20 years said, “I can’t fathom
the fact that he’s not there. That’s so
unlike everything that I know about
him.”
How can psychopaths be pre
vented from gaining control in large
political or financial organisations?
Socialogist Charles Stoup said that
the public should be alert and ask
questions. Especially where a great
deal of money and power are at
stake.
suppc
StOCK
No Aggie joke
Cartoonists draw A&M humor
I985i
Their occupations range from de-
; Ipartment head to full time student.
But they all have the same hobby —
1'drawing cartoons. They also have a
lot more in common, such as the way
jthey started, their dreams for syndi-
Jcation and their link with Texas
I A&M.
The creators of “Slouch,” “dp,”
[“Warped,” and the editorial cartoon
jfor The Battalion are Aggies who
dream of national syndication.
The cartoons range from the Ag-
;gie-directed humor of “Slouch,” the
distinct humor of “Warped,” the an-
jtics of “dp” as he encourages stu
dents and alumni to attend athletic
events and the editorial comments of
Mike Lane.
“Slouch” by Jim Earle, Class of
'54, is the oldest of the comics. Earle
has been drawing Cadet Slouch since
the fall of 1953 when Earle was a se
nior architecture student. Earle is
now head of the A&M engineering
design graphics department.
Why did Earle start drawing a da
ily cartoon for the student newspa
per?
“I wish I could come up with
i something romantic,” Earle said,
“but I just went to The Battalion and
I asked to do some cartoons for
them and they said yes. About
| Thanksgiving time I decided to de
velop a character and that’s where
|[Slouch came from.
“Response was good primarily be
cause being a kid like I was at that
time I used it to poke fun and some
times in a pretty crude fashion and
kids liked that. It gave them a release
— a cartoon can express what they
are feeling.”
After thirty-plus years the some
times confused cadet Slouch is still
much the same as that fall in 1953.
Earle says the character has gone
through the same changes most
characters do with age — becoming
rounder and sporting an up-to-date
haircut.
Earle said he enjoys being a part
of the newspaper, something that
students look at every day, but he
said most of his students don’t real
ize he is the man behing the lines of
Slouch.
A former classmate of Earle’s,
Don Powell, Class of’56, also draws a
cartoon for The Battalion. Powell
said he was prompted to do “dp” af
ter he returned to A&M and discov
ered that the paper didn’t have a
good one.
“Jim Earle and I went to school at
the same time I did and he got to be
a Battalion cartoonist and I didn’t,”
cartoon aimed only at an audience
familiar with A&M. McCullar, Class
of ’77, will be starting his fifth year
as cartoonist for The Battalion this
summer. McCullar, who has a de
gree in entomology, said he doesn’t
think there is anything strange about
combination of his interest in insects
and his cartoon hobby.
“In a way insects are one of the
strangest forms of life on earth and
thus my fascination for entomolo
gy,” McCullar said.
He had been sketching for a while
when he decided to enter a contest,
McCullar said, and that made him
It’s an anonymous kind of work, you’re a celebrity but
people know your work, not your face — Scott McCul
lar, creator of Warped.
Powell said.. “I saw the need for a
sports cartoon so I took some by the
(Battalion) editor and he liked
them.”
Powell said he saw a cartoon he
liked in a Dallas paper that sup-
E orted a team there and he decided
e could do the same sort of thing
here. Since then, he has been doing
two cartoons a week during the reg
ular academic year — one before the
game and one after the game, in
support of the Aggie teams.
“I’ve always thought of it as a car
toon to support A&M and it’s ath
letic programs,” he said.
Most of the characters in “dp” are
the mascots of other Southwest Con
ference teams and the Aggie player;
dp himself makes infrequent ap
pearances.
Both “Slouch” and “dp” are one-
frame cartoons done in a spirit of
promoting A&M traditions. But
Scott McCullar’s “Warped” is a daily
strip that presents ideas that are
more like the Sunday funnies than
ask how he could get started in Col
lege Station. And just like Earle and
Powell, McCullar took samples of his
work to The Battalion editor and
was hired as a cartoonist. He said he
started cartooning as a way to share
quips he overheard but never got to
retell.
“I’d been a smart mouth for quite
some time,” McCullar said. “It was
an outlet for such nonsense — the
stuff that falls by the wayside at par
ties. It’s an anonymous kind of work,
you’re a celebrity but people know
your work, not your face.”
McCullar said he has taught him
self what he knows about drawing
cartoons;
“Eve read some books on the sub
ject that say a good gag sense is the
key,” McCullar said. “A good gag
sense more than makes up for bad
drawing, but the reverse isn’t true.
The hardest part is the drawing. I
never have a problem with ideas.
That seems to stem from a free asso
ciation of ideas, reading a lot of
books, magazines and newspapers.”
McCullar credits the freedom the
paper’s editors give him to do what
ever kind of strip he wants for the
strips that are outside the “mains
tream of ideas.
“I guess the other reason I do it is
because I feel a responsibility,” he
said. “For the longest time I was the
only editorial cartoonist in this city
so 1 had the responsibility to do
something. If there was a shot to
take I’d take it, but it wasn’t always a
cheap shot.”
Now that Mike Lane, Class of ’84,
draws editorial cartoons for The
Battalion, McCullar is free to do
whatever kind of cartoons he wants.
P l
lished artist through The Battalion.
The paper had an opening for an
editorial cartoonist and Land ap
plied because ‘he needed the mon
ey,” he said.
“I don’t cartoon, I draw people
the way they look,” Lane said.
Most of his ideas are his own al
though he tries them out on his
friends and The Battalion staff to
make sure he is getting his point
across.
“I’ve been trying to use it more as
a means of ... il I see something
wrong somewhere that a lot of peo
ple comment on ... I try to present a
different viewpoint,” Lane said.
“You can gripe all day, but when you
sit down and put something in the
paper and everybody sees it, it’s kind
of fun.”
Lane said he would like to make
drawing a lifestyle, but “there’s no
money in it.”
Number One
in
Aggieland
The
Battalion
iru
ay r
I985i
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